The great Sacramento CA label S.S. Recordscelebrates their 10th Anniversary this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with three shows in San Francisco (details).

"Over the last ten years, the label has built a reputation for discovering great unknown bands, finding hidden underground music scenes throughout the world, and digging up obscure and forgotten recordings." (-ssten.com)

It's true! In welcoming SS Records to the FMA, WFMU's Music Director hailed Mr. SS himself Scott Soriano's "full understanding of what made esoteric independent weirdo/garage/artpunk labels of the 80s and 90s so beloved." Soriano's been carrying on the torch not just through the label itself, but through a well-curated mailorder/distro and the essential Z-Gun print zine, which Brian calls "the greatest print-media gift to the scene since the halcion days of Forced Exposure" (-Brian Turner).

The SS 10th Anniversary shows include label staples like Nothing People, Charles Albright, Lamps, Wounded Lion, and Liquorball (memb Monoshock!), plus special guests like Hank IV and the Mantles, a Sunday afternoon record swap, and renion performances by the A Frames' original lineup (feat Lars Finberg of The Intelligence, A Frames were the first band to be released on SS, and this is their last show ever!), Nar, and feedtime (first & only North American appearance). Full lineup after the jump!

I was a fan of Scott Soriano's Cali-based S.S. Records from the getgo. Exhibiting a full understanding of what made esoteric independent weirdo/garage/artpunk labels of the 80s and 90s so beloved, and globbing handfuls of that stuff into the S.S. aesthetic automatically set 'em apart from the myriad of Bingenheimer-bowl-cut revisionists, Blues Magoos copyist losers, and future fellators of Little Steven's cult of blah rock. Rock is certainly served up by the likes of Lamps, the Intelligence, etc., but the lygergic injection, nods to unlikely sources of influence, and even some heady dozes of Siltbreeze-friendly WTF unchartedness all run through rampantly.

Via his mailorder catalog distro, Soriano has truly scraped into unknown areas to dig up bands completely unknown that you can't discover otherwise (with a special connection to the teeming French underground), and his Z-Gun print zine is the greatest print-media gift to the scene since the halcion days of Forced Exposure. From the Metal Urbain/via gal-garage vibe of Lili Z to the sublime Chairs Missing nods of Germany's excellent Krysmopompas, to the Butthole Surfers-meets-Chrome zonk of Mexico's XYX and the alien transmissions of Los Llamarada (both of whom have played WFMU SXSW events!), S.S. comes up with the goods and it's a joy to welcome some sounds to the Free Music Archive.

Monoshock (a 90's Cali band that ranks in my book as one of the greatest trashmasters of American music period) have their singles comp on S.S. and a few Mp3s on the FMA, and that's reason enough to celebrate! Dig in!